report no.: 048
informant: Richie 1998 (154)
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'Only one man understands me', Hegel muttered towards the end of his life, 'and even he does not.' The complaint was widespread; Hegel's cryptic style, coupled with the fact that many of his works were published from lecture notes, added to the difficulty in deciphering his already obscure and abstract writing. Schopenhauer would call Hegel's work 'pure nonsense' created by 'stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously been known only in madhouses', which had resulted in the 'most bare faced general mystifaction that has ever taken place ... and will remain as a monument to German stupidity'.